5/7/2010 [About Yamaha]
Yamaha Music UK teamed up with Manchester based specialist music School Chetham's to promote the second annual Piano Competition for Young Pianists, held recently in the School.
The concept of the scheme is to provide young pianists of all ages from within the school the opportunity to perform on Yamaha's flagship CFIIIS concert grand in a professional environment which would add significantly to the students’ personal development. Open to three age-categories the judging panel was chaired by Bryce Morrison, a distinguished pianist and teacher who heard over 30 entrants on the day.
Manager of Yamaha Artist Services London Kumi Liley who also served on the judging panel commented, "We were delighted to co-produce this exciting event with Chetham's, we experienced some real virtuosity and some incredibly commanding and sensitive performances throughout the day , our youngest entrant was only 10 years old”.
The Chetham's Piano Competition in association with Yamaha marks an exciting development in the partnership between the two organisations. The collaboration now encompasses membership of the acclaimed 'Yamaha Piano Scholarship programme' with the award currently being held by Adam Boeker and a brass scholarship programme with Peter Moore, the acclaimed winner of the BBC Young Musician of the year being the latest recipient.
Chetham's have also recently acquired a wide range of Yamaha upright and grand Pianos including 18 C3's and 9 U1's and are expected to become one of the founding Yamaha Disklavier locations participating in a groundbreaking international 'twinning' scheme between music schools and conservatoires throughout the world. The programme will be based around the unique technological capability of the Yamaha Disklavier which allows real time audio and visual transmission of performances and masterclasses over the internet.
The event was organised by Chetham's Head of Keyboard Murray McLachlan who presented the winners with their cheques at the end of the event and who told us "Both students and teachers at Chetham’s are deeply touched and indebted to Yamaha Music UK for their enormous generosity and vision in sponsoring and enabling the competition to take place. What we had was more of an end of academic year mini piano festival than a competition, as everyone felt inspired and indeed elated by the glorious sounds of the CFIIIS Concert grand provided for the occasion. Young pianists need goals to aim for,as well as practical advice, encouragement and audiences to communicate to. This wonderful event provided all of these elements, and everyone in the keyboard department at Chetham’s is thrilled that the competition will become an annual fixture in the Chetham’s calendar."
